I have probably 30 pots that I'm moving around right now, trying to find the ideal spot(s) for them. I do try to get them in the best location, but I don't move them very far. You're not crazy...unless I'm crazy, too! ;)

I'm crazy heh....doing this every day from spring to frost gets to be a lil much ;)

Todd In Philly

Just read this thread. Moving pots? Do it every day - morning, noon, and late afternoon if I can. 55 of them to be exact. Some of them very large. I'm an urban dweller with a small deck and a bit of a side yard between two condos. In order to capture the sun and light to my plants best advantage, I have to move my pots around. Where I live if I want a garden at all, there's little choice. So far it's worked just fine for the plants. If my back and arms hold out all should be well.

Southern California, zone 10a.

Nearly 200 pots.... ummmm. NO!
I do move some around depending on the plant's growth - but not to follow the sun.
I get a lot of sun in my yard anyway so it's not really an issue.
But even if I didn't, there's too many pots to move around.
By the time I moved them, it would be time to start over.
Sort of like bridge painting.
LOL!

Good grief no, I look to make growing things less work, not more.

Once a container is filled with mix and plants it stays put.

If one area gets more sun than the next, choose plants that do well the amount of light available.

Never in a thousand million, bajillion years would I be caught dead moving containers around on a daily basis.

I get why some sunlight challenged folks do it, but otherwise it's just too much work for this gardener.

Fagetaboutit! No way, not ever.

My mountain property is cut out of a dense oak, maple sourwood forest and I only cut enough trees for the house/driveway and garage opening.
Kind of like a big oval opening in a forest with 75 foot+ high trees.
only gets sun from 10am to 3pm which is probably enough but I thought it would be cool to have something like a small gauge railroad track and a car that sits on the track.
There would be a sensor that senses when the car is out of the sun and moves the car along the track untill the sun is no more. It would reset and move to the other end of the track in the moring or evening.

I could get 8 hours of sun on my veggies that way.

Now that's crazy, but it would be cool.

I do just the opposite. There are several containers on my porch and patio, and at this altitude, sometimes things look pretty sad by mid afternoon. If the plants look too stressed, I give them a drink and move that one to a shady spot till the next morning. They always perk up by then. The only other reason I move them is on the days like today when the winds are howling, and the plants are looking beat up. I do try to plant the things that are right for the amount of light they will get, but this early in the season when the seedlings are so small, I do baby them a bit.

I had to laugh when I read this. My sister says I am the only person she knows that grows tomato plants using the "mobile" system. My "space" is sun challenged, I live in the city and between the trees, houses and garages my yard does not get full sun anywhere. I am currently growing 2 tomato plants (4th of July and a Better Boy) in a bale of straw on a garden cart which I move as needed. I did this last year also, for the first time with medium results. Saw the bale of straw idea on Paula Deans show on the Food Network. I over watered last year not realizing how well the straw retained moisture. I just planted a cherry tomato plant in a large clay pot and built a short "cart" out of casters from Lowes and left over deck material. I am sure the neighbors think I crazy but so what because I will have home grown tomatos and they won't. : )

Lupner, get this:

I do ok with tomato in containers but they get barely 6 hrs of good sun. Those on the west side of a fence lack morning sun and those on the east side of the garage lose sun by 1pm.

Now being the crazy one that I am I am thinking of a large lazy susan, roller system whereby I can easily roll the 12-16 gal containers, or a cart of sorts pulled by a garage door opener affair. How to construct it will come to me in my sleep.

Meanwhile, I will use a few cart dollies to move them while they are still in their smaller containers.

We are not crazy, mad gardeners maybe. Eccentric? Not at all.

I was having trouble with my pots, mainly moving them to avoid winter weather. I was using a tow to drag them, but I found this. Works really well for big ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Big Slider

Just a little about light - the energy source that powers photosynthesis. For each plant species there is an optimal level of photo exposure. Below this level, photosynthetic activity is reduced to below the maximum photosynthetic potential of the plant. Above the optimal level, the photosynthetic rate first becomes static, with continued increases in light levels above optimum causing damage to the photosystems of the plant and actually reducing the photosynthetic rate. The goal is to optimize light levels so as to maximize the photosynthetic rate, so it may or may not be beneficial to continually move plants so they are continually sited in full sun. Photo exposure is a function of both duration and intensity, and most 'full sun' plants are perfectly happy when they receive 6-8 hours of full sun exposure.

Al

Yep, I'm a plant mover, too.

Some plants get moved into the sun, others get moved into the shade (Christmas cactus, for example). Of course, I can only take such luxuries when I'm at home during the day...thankfully, I have most of the summer off.

Josh

Oh yeah, I move pots all the time. Not just because of exposure but because some get too big to remain where they are, some don't look good at certain times of the year and need to be hidden for a while, and some look great and need to be moved to the front. I even use bricks and cement blocks to raise and lower the heights so that they look good at different levels. Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very lucky to have plenty of area that is in full sun for at least 6-8 hours a day... I choose a spot for each container, based on the plants it contains, and I leave it there. Most of my containers are way too large and heavy to keep moving! I do turn them occasionally, so everything grows evenly... but other than that, no moving for me!

I will move smaller pots, but it's mainly to protect them during bad weather... high winds or bad storms... I just move them closer to the garage so they're out of the main weather, when it's poor.

And people around here told me I was "crazy" to not just accept there's no "full sun" on this property except for up near the mailbox!

For this my first year I will not be deterred...LOL.

Moving pots is like part of the daily gardening ritual.

Even all the deck pots I'd like to have bloom since critters have eaten from like pots on ground get moved 2-3 times a day to catch sun as it gets blocked by tree foliage.

Got a full size Buddleia which I have no place to put in ground with full sun so put it in largest pot I could find and move it around also as tree foliage blocks sun.

All this moving is just to get at least 6 hours of sun per day. Same with Lavender plants which are in pots because they succumbed to amended clay soil. If I want lavender it's got to go in pots and it wants more than a couple hours of sun per day.

The idea of being so restricted with shade loving plants wasn't something I was ready to accept my first year trying gardening. Next year will have to bring some changes unless I can convince someone to cut back or down a couple of trees so there's at least consistent 6 hours of sun per day.

Unfortunately butterflies need host and nectar plants that, for the most part, need "full sun" (at least 6 hours per day) so they're not all yellowing and/or reaching at 45+ degree angles reaching for sunlight.

Not to change the subject, but there are quite a lot of shade loving plants that bloom beautifully... we aren't restricted to Hostas and Bleeding Hearts any longer! I just recently suggested an entire list of shade loving plants for a friend who has a rather shady yard... Astilbe, Lenten Rose, Lobelia, Baptisia, Lady's Mantle, Heuchera... and the list goes on!

For those of you that have a lot of shade to deal with, please do take a look at the Shade Plants sections of all the catalogs! I think you'll find that there are many gorgeous flowering plants that prefer a bit of shade!

There is a reasonable scenario to move potted plants but that would be a seasonal change based upon the movement of north and south. A high June sun might catch an overhang or a tree where a lower sun on the horizon might angle in better but daily east west is more like walking the dog. I it is a work of love why not? If it seem like a drag it probably will not work.
Now a concave mirror with a focal point aimed at my favorite plant mounted on a solar power actuator sounds like my kind of operation. On a more serious note I have always dreamed of using reflective light in some circumstances.

Here is a way to perhaps help move the light.

reflective mylar.

http://www.mylarstoreonline.com/images/mylar1_000.jpg

I am in HOT Central Florida...mine are all moved INTO the shade of the house, fence, and a palm tree. In the sun they would all be toast! LOL!!!

Hi
have you thought of keeping a log on the effectiveness of moving particularly frequently??
I grow mostly epiphytes and then mostly orchids . Almost all will grow in very dense shade in fact frequently better . What they don't do is flower well.lol Too much sun and they at least stress at worst sunburn. I keep a log as each plant goes into it's flowering period. How many flowers nd particularly what quality was produced in a given amount of foot candles.
I have generally found moving them is counter productive
they adapt to certain amounts of light so I never move more than twice a year.
A log will give you a lot of info on what works. Even full sun plants that have been grown in shade will often croak when moved suddenly in full sun. I think the magic number is around 3 weeks of steadily increasing light before full exposure. So in my experience frequent moves are useless gary

I have BIG pots and I have small pots....they never move! lol It is interesting to know there are people that move their pots according to the sun. :0) {{gwi:29759}}

nicole, what a beautiful container, just the kind i like. Was that a daylilly i spied in container? I've tried dragging my pots some but had to give up. So everything is in the sunniest spot possible. I live in a cleared out spot in a hardwood forest too.

I live in FL and I too move pots around...but for me I move some of them out of DIRECT AFTERNOON SUN!! Our sun is very intense here in the summer and some of my plants fry or sulk(gardenias for one) does not like our afternoon sun. Some of my Jades(variegated ones) I keep from the afternoon sun also. Morning sun is fine, around Mid/late October I can leave most of them in direct sun. For now they play musical pots, LOL...

I had a good laugh reading this.

My husband thinks I'm a crazy gardener...gardening sometimes until all hours of the night with our porch lights on, moving this and that until it's just right, and I think if I moved pots around all day it would put him over the edge. LOL.

I've done pretty good this year, for a newbie, as far as planting shade plants in the shade and sun plants in the sun. This past winter was horrendous, I had winter blues, so it gave me plenty of time to do my research before planting time came around.

That's not to say that if I HAD to do it, I wouldn't. :)

As I've mentioned in a couple other Threads lately, the raccoons have really accosted my plants this summer (even my thorny osages!). The young raccoons test-chew a few jade leaves before they lose interest...but, of course, the damage is already done: leaves uglified or lost, branches bent, and soils disturbed.

So I've been moving my jades onto a table at night, where they're safe, and then moving them into their day spots once the morning sun has crested the eastern hills.

It beats throwing firewood at the raccoons, that's for sure ;)

Josh